Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CapCO2 (Intensified Process for CAPturing CO2)
Teaser
PROBLEM.Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main cause of the greenhouse effect and, although the concern for the climate change and its effects on the environment, CO2 emissions continue to grow. For this reason, European Commission launched in 2005 the Emissions Trading...
Summary
PROBLEM.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main cause of the greenhouse effect and, although the concern for the climate change and its effects on the environment, CO2 emissions continue to grow. For this reason, European Commission launched in 2005 the Emissions Trading System to discourage CO2 emissions in the industrial sector: for each ton emitted, industrial players have to buy a permit at a market price that today is around € 25 but will reach 45 € by 2021 (Goldman /& Sachs projection). On the other hand, capturing and storing CO2, avoiding emissions, has currently a cost > 70 €/ton. This will bring to unsustainable costs for the industrial players.
SOCIAL NEEDS
Continuing today’s patterns of carbon-intensive energy use is estimated, together with climate change, to cause 6 million deaths per year by 2030. This implies that a combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim more than 60 million lives between now and the end of the next decade. For this reason, Climate Action is included in the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by United Nations (Goal n. 13).
CapCO2 SOLUTION
CapCO2 is a new absorption technology for CO2 capturing characterised by two disruptive innovations: 1) the application of a intensified CO2 capture solvent; 2) the use of the intensified process configuration using the Rotary Packed Bed architecture.
The combination of these two patented technology leads to an outstanding reduction of the plant size (easy application in already operating plants) and to a disruptive CAPEX and OPEX reduction, allowing an unparalleled CO2 capture cost < 25 €/ton, 58-73% lower than conventional solutions!
To validate the technology and its performance, an integrated Mobile Intensified Compact CO2 unit, called CO2-MIC, will be developed and tested in different validation sites, in order to verify CapCO2 properties in various operative scenarios.
Work performed
The Phase 1 Feasibility Study allowed a better understanding of the CapCO2 potentialities.
Main conclusions are:
1. The CO2-MIC mobile plant, with a capacity of 10 tons per day, has been designed. All plant units are integrated in a standard 20-foot shipping container (33.22 m3) or multiples thereof. The onsite requirements have been quantified.
2. CO2-MIC manufacturing and assembling costs have been defined together with the vendors which will procure the plants unit
3. Validation sites to test CO2-MIC have been identified, involving international end-users in various operative scenarios (natural gas and coal-fired power stations, Waste to Energy Incinerator, Biogas upgrading, steel blast furnace.
4. Certification needed to install CapCO2 plants in industrial environment have been identified.
5. A complete market survey has been performed and the main market drivers have been understood.
6. A large number of big players in the value chain have been involved.
7. The Business Model and the Go-to-Market strategies have been assessed.
8. The Phase 2 project workplan and budget have been planned.
9. A Risk Register has been defined and the main contingency actions selected.
10. An IPR strategy has been planned.
Final results
CapCO2 represents a substantial improvement in the state of the art, able to overcome the current limits of Carbon Capture sector:
• the intensified solvent and the compact RPB architecture lead to a much lower process dimensions in respect to competing solutions, increasing the application potentialities in the already operating plants (90% of the market);
• thanks to the compact unit, the CO2 capture utility consumption is the lowest in the market;
• the consequent reduction of CAPEX and OPEX leads to an unparalleled CO2 capture cost of 25 €/ton.
Next steps in the development process will be:
• submitting the Phase 2 project with the scope to achieve the EU grant and speed-up the market uptake;
• manufacturing the CO2-MIC;
• validating the CO2-MIC in three validation sites at least;
• promote and industrialise CapCO2 solution, and implement the Go-to-Market strategy.
Website & more info
More info: http://www.carboncleansolutions.com.